The invention relates to configuring user interfaces of call devices in a communications system.
Data networks are widely used to link various types of network elements, such as personal computers, servers, gateways, network telephones, and so forth. Data networks may include private networks (such as local area networks or wide area networks) and public networks (such as the Internet). Popular forms of communications between network elements across such data networks include electronic mail, file transfer, web browsing, and other exchanges of digital data.
With the increased capacity and reliability of data networks, voice communications (including telephone calls, video conferencing, and so forth) over data networks have become possible. Voice communications over data networks are unlike voice communications in a circuit-switched network, such as a public switched telephone network (PSTN), which provides users with dedicated, end-to-end circuit connections for the duration of each call. Communications over data networks, such as IP (Internet Protocol) networks, are performed using packets or datagrams that are sent in bursts from a source to one or more destination nodes. Voice data sent over a data network typically shares network bandwidth with conventional non-voice data (e.g., data associated with electronic mail, file transfer, web access, and other traffic).
Various standards have been proposed for voice and multimedia communications over data networks. One such standard is the H.323 Recommendation from the International Telecommunications Union (ITU), which describes terminals, equipment, and services for multimedia communications over data networks.
Another standard for voice and multimedia communications is the Session Initiation Protocol (SIP), which establishes, maintains, and terminates multimedia sessions over a data network. SIP is part of a multimedia data and control architecture developed by the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF). The IETF multimedia data and control architecture also includes other protocols to enable voice and multimedia sessions over data networks, including the Resource Reservation Protocol (RSVP) for reserving network resources; the Real-Time Transport Protocol (RTP) for transporting real-time data and providing quality of service (QoS) feedback; the Real-Time Streaming Protocol (RTSP) for controlling delivery of streaming media; the Session Announcement Protocol (SAP) for advertising multimedia sessions by multicast; and the Session Description Protocol (SDP) for describing multimedia sessions.
A call device in a communications network, such as a packet-based data network, may be configured to have a user interface that is specific for the user of the call device. Examples of call devices may include a network telephone, a computer, a portable device, and other types of devices. The user interface of a telephone may include pre-programmed buttons, such as speed dial buttons and other programmable buttons. Different users may have different preferences on which buttons are used for specific functions. The same also holds true for user interfaces of computer systems. For example, the graphical user interface (GUI) screen provided by a communications application program, such as a telephony application program, may be configured to a specific user's preferences.
If a second user wishes to use a call device configured to a first user's preferences, the second user may have to learn how the user interface is configured or avoid using certain functions all together. Shared devices, such as telephones in a conference room or a visitor's office, may need to be programmed with a generic user interface to avoid confusion. Such generic user interfaces on call devices may not provide a full feature set. For example, speed dial buttons may not be used since different users have different telephone numbers programmed into their speed dial buttons. In addition, buttons on a user interface may have to be specifically labeled to enable usage of those buttons for the desired functions.
A need thus exists for a method and apparatus to provide more convenient user interfaces in call devices that are capable of participating in communications sessions over a network.